Phillip Goldslager

I once had a client named Phillip Goldslager. I thought of him as a kid, because as a small guy with a baby-face, but he was about thirty. The first time I met him he was in Orient Correctional Center doing time on a cocaine possession charge. Before he was sentenced on that charge however, he had managed to pick up a theft charge. He had (or at least the state accused him, of stealing a guy's bag of golf clubs and fencing them. On top of that, apparently the victim had left his *wedding* *ring* in the golf bag. The golf bag was recovered, but the wedding ring was not. (Did I mention that the victim as NOT in a forgive and forget mood?) I went over the case with him (they had him dead to rights) and told him that it was his call- if he wanted to take it to trial, we'd go to trial, or I could try to get him the best plea bargain possible. He was OK with a plea bargain. Before I left, I told him, "Phil, I think I can get you probation, but you better stay away from that cocaine, because that s*** can *kill* you."

I talked with the DA, yep, they were OK with him getting probation, so I went back down to Orient to give him the good news.I said, "Ok, you're getting out in a week, we'll have your plea hearing a week after that. But remember, Phil, you better stay away from that cocaine, because that s*** can kill you."

The day after his release date, I called his mother and asked to talk ith Phil. She said, sorry, no, Phil is dead. Phil had died of a cocaine overdose the day after he was released from prison. She was nice enough to tell me that her son had told her good things about me. (That's a nice change from being called everything but a Precious Child of God- which has happened more times than I can count)

I think Johnny Cash had the right idea when he rote "The Cocaine Blues" (written from the point of view of an inmate serving a 99 year sentence in San Quentin) "Lay off that whiskey, and let that cocaine be!"